Today, this glorious, once in a forever eon, each in our own way,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0our day to howl. Happy Independence Day, dear\u00a0saddlepals.\u00a0Happy 250th\u00a0Birthday and Happy Time Ranger adventure.\u00a0Isn\u2019t it just beyond grand to live in this amazing ongoing song of a country?\u00a0<\/p>\n
This fine\u00a0Saturday\u00a0morning,\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0go for a\u00a0trail\u00a0ride.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0ride back through the quieter times of\u00a0yesteryear. There we will find heroes, villains,\u00a0humor\u00a0and tragedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RUTH! \u2014\u00a0My dear, dear friend and hero, Ruth Waldo Newhall, was\u00a0born on\u00a0July 3, 1910. She was this\u00a0paper\u2019s best gossip columnist and best editor, period, not to mention a genuine force of nature. I shall like and miss her always.\u00a0<\/p>\n
AND DON\u2019T FORGET TO WATER THE POPPIES \u2014\u00a0Imagine owning most of the Santa Clarita Valley. Think of the yard work. On July 1, 1808, Ignacio del Valle was born in Jalisco, Mexico. He would later be mayor of Los Angeles and one of Southern California\u2019s most prominent political figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
HAPPY SLIGHTLY BELATED BIRTHDAY, CASTAIC \u2014\u00a0On July 1,\u00a01915,\u00a0the township of Castaic was founded, which makes it 115 years young today.\u00a0Interestingly, a 40-year-long range war in which as many as 27 men\u00a0lost their lives was just winding down there. W.W. Jenkins, a\u00a0sort-of\u00a0self-made Judge Roy Bean who dispensed vigilante law up there,\u00a0was one of the combatants. From the\u00a0small-town\u00a0department, Jenkins was employed by Ignacio del Valle as one of the captains of the California Rangers, the shoot-first, ask-questions-later group that helped clean up a lawless Los Angeles in a record time of about\u00a018 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
HEY JOE & JOHN \u2014\u00a0This\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0local, but it sure is close. This marks the 180th anniversary of Rancho Palos Verdes, a segment of the original Rancho San Pedro, a sprawling land grant originally given by the\u00a0king of Spain to Juan and Jose Sepulveda. Most of you have driven along the boulevard named after the boys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JULY 3,\u00a01926\u00a0<\/p>\n
SHAKE, RATTLE & ROLL \u2014\u00a0A decent-sized earthquake rattled the Santa Clarita Valley around 3:15 in the morning. It\u00a0was on\u00a0the anniversary of the great Santa Barbara quake. No damage was reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MOVIE MEMORABILIA BLAZE \u2014\u00a0Built in 1923, it was first used as a movie prop in a William S. Hart movie. On this date, the cabin burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances. Hart lost a lot of movie memorabilia in the blaze, valued at $6,000.\u00a0That was a ton of money back in 1923 when you consider a house\u00a0cost\u00a0$600.\u00a0<\/p>\n
VISITING THE WATER GOD, TOTSONI \u2014\u00a0The Navajo tribe that lived and worked the ranch of another famous local movie star, Harry Carey, made their annual pilgrimage to the Pacific. Led by Carey and his wife, Olive, they made the trek before dawn where they boarded the Carey yacht and sailed to Catalina. Carey had met the tribe in the early 20th century while on a movie shoot and invited them \u2014 all of them \u2014 to move to his 1,000-acre spread in San Francisquito Canyon. The Navajos would camp on the beach, swim in the\u00a0ocean\u00a0and do a variety of ceremonies, honoring their water god,\u00a0Totsoni. The tribe believed all living things, organic and\u00a0animal, came from the oceans. The recognition was a nine-day ceremony. The last four days the Navajos competed in foot and horse races, wrestling and archery contests back at the ranch.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
HOTTER\u2019N THREE HECKS \u2014\u00a0Summer came in with a devilish vengeance.\u00a0We went through some weird weather where the mercury topped the 110\u00a0mark. Darn\u00a0muggy, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
AND WE\u2019RE NOT TALKING THE HOTSY-TOTSY MIDDLE-AGED DIVORCEE, EITHER \u2014\u00a0Not too many SoCal Edison workers have this as part of their job description today, but, 100\u00a0years back, SCE\u2019s F.A.\u00a0O\u2019Brien bagged a 6-foot-long cougar prowling near his pack mule by the Tumble Inn on the old Ridge Route. O\u2019Brien made a rug of the predator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WONDER IF \u2018FBO\u2019 STOOD FOR \u2018FRED\u2019S BOX OFFICE?\u2019 \u2014\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0not exactly household names like MGM or Warner Brothers, but the FBO and Myers Production Co.\u00a0were in town, making silent movies on this date, both trying not to bump into one another in Whitney Canyon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JULY 3,\u00a01936\u00a0<\/p>\n
A DEAD FOOL BEHIND THE WHEEL \u2014\u00a0Maxine Rideaux,\u00a0badly burned, was pulled from a fiery wreckage. Hysterically, she screamed: \u201cI should have known better than ride with that fool, because he was a demon of a driver.\u201d The demon in question was Jim Epperson. He tried to pass a cement truck on the Ridge Route, lost control of his\u00a0Porgrimson\u00a0car\u00a0and crashed. Epperson and his wife were burned alive in the wreck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
COPS SHOOT WELL \u2014\u00a0Local sharpshooters competed in the annual Hart Cup competition\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0Fourth of July festivities. Named after our silent Western hero, the four finalists were all local\u00a0sheriff\u2019s deputies. One of them competed with a historic gun that had been once adorned with large diamonds and gold. The jewels had been pried off decades earlier and ended up in pawn shops. One competitor kidded the deputy who now owned it, saying the handle, filled with putty, looked like \u201ca\u00a0smallpox\u00a0victim.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
JULY 3, 1946\u00a0<\/p>\n
A SURREAL\u00a0FOURTH\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The mood was both surreal and joyous around Newhall. The\u00a0Fourth of July parade \u2014 the biggest to date \u2014 was right around the corner. Yet, right near the starting ground, David Clark,\u00a0foreman\u00a0of the William S. Hart ranch, was quietly securing the property, putting on new locks. The valley\u2019s most prominent figure and one of the world\u2019s most famous people, Bill Hart had died a week earlier. Few realized that for the next 10 years, his estate, willed to the county, would be the subject of a bitter and ongoing fight between Hart\u2019s son and Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
THE COWBOY: AN ENDANGERED SPECIES \u2014\u00a0A lot of locals were well represented at the big Pan Pacific summer rodeo.\u00a0First of all, the thing was named for rancher and cowboy star, Gene Autry.\u00a0The Jauregui boys, Ed and Bob, both placed high in calf-roping\u00a0and Andy supplied most of the rodeo livestock. A pair of Foxes (not related, obviously) Fox O\u2019Callahan and Dewey Fox also placed, as did Chick Hannon, Harry\u00a0Logue\u00a0and Claude\u00a0Uterback. We had a lot of working cowpokes living here\u00a080 years back. Today, there\u2019s less than a handful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JULY 3,\u00a01956\u00a0<\/p>\n
ALMOST A DUMP? \u2014\u00a0Today,\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0made an industrial park out of it.\u00a0More than a\u00a0half-century back, salvage tycoon Louie Visco bought the old Needham\u00a0Ranch on Sierra Highway, south of Eternal Valley. Needham was considering turning the\u00a0900 acres\u00a0into either a roofing paper factory or a dump. He did\u00a0neither.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OIL TRUCK FIRE \u2014\u00a0A leaking oil truck with a dragging muffler was blamed for starting eight small brush\u00a0fires in 100-degree weather along Placerita Canyon Road. County firefighters quickly doused the blazes. Sparks from the old oil tanker, caused by the dragging muffler, were blamed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CHEAP GAS \u2014\u00a0Regular gasoline was 28.9 cents in Newhall.\u00a0That\u2019d\u00a0be not for an ounce, but a gallon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JULY 3,\u00a01966\u00a0<\/p>\n
GIVING THE\u00a0SECOND\u00a0AMENDMENT A BAD NAME \u2014\u00a0Gun-toting morons\u00a0(good band name!)\u00a0were responsible for\u00a0a power outage affecting 1,400 homes and dozens of businesses. The yahoos shot out a big insulator.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
PRETTY PEGGY \u2014\u00a0My good\u00a0pal, \u201cPretty\u201d Peggy Sinclair,\u00a0was\u00a0hands\u00a0down the most gorgeous gal in the SCV. Others agreed, crowning her Miss Newhall-Saugus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ONE STEP CLOSER TO CIVILIZATION \u2014\u00a0The first traffic crosswalk signals in the valley were installed 40 years back, culminating an effort that began in 1955. The Chamber of Commerce started lobbying the county in \u201955 to get some form of traffic lights here. It only took 11 years and hundreds of letters. The chamber even collected thousands of signatures and counted vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CAKE FOR THE GIRLS! \u2014\u00a0Happy anniversary to our local\u00a0Soroptimists. On this date,\u00a060 years back, they received their official charter from the national office. Mrs. Anne Lynch was elected first president.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0guessing there was no one born yet in 1966 who is currently\u00a0in\u00a0Soroptimists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
FANCY PHONES \u2014\u00a0North Castaic\u00a0residents in\u00a0a 117-squre-mile area joined the rest of the world when dial telephones replaced the old-fashioned wind-up and radio phone service. At the time, there were \u2014 get this \u2014\u202fonly 20 telephone subscribers in the area. At the time,\u00a0Newhall alone\u00a0had 14,500 phones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JULY 3,\u00a01976\u00a0<\/p>\n
SWIMMING UPSTREAM \u2014\u00a0Cripes. People. How\u00a0they\u00a0break our\u00a0hearts.\u00a0My dear\u00a0pal,\u00a0ol\u2019 Doc Patrick Shaughnessy,\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0with us anymore. The controversial dentist and\u00a0William S.\u00a0Hart\u00a0Union High School District\u00a0trustee died young, many years ago.\u00a0But,\u00a0bless\u00a0his heart, he was a rare hero, trying to change the patterns of our youth. Alarmed at the amount of junk food the district had piled into their campus vending machines, Pat tried a pilot program at Sierra Vista Junior\u00a0High. Taking out all the candy bars, Twinkies,\u00a0chips\u00a0and addendum junk food from the vending machines, he replaced them with roasted nuts, granola, fruit\u00a0juices\u00a0and milk. The result? Vending sales slumped in one month from around $8,000 to about $5,000. That translated to a loss for the district of about $250 a day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
THE UPS & DOWNS OF FAME \u2014\u00a0Some folks were rather amazed to hear that country\/western singing star Merle Travis was their neighbor. The recording star lived in a trailer in the Lily of the Valley Mobile Home Park with his wife, Betty, and two poodles.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0two poodles too many\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
FREAK ACCIDENT & THEN SOME \u2014\u00a0A 25-year-old San Diego woman died in one of the most bizarre freak accidents in this valley\u2019s history. Motoring home in her Volkswagen, the last thing she saw were the two huge wheels, tires and axle assembly from a big rig truck bouncing toward her. Right after leaving the Castaic scales, all teamster Herbert Wann reported feeling was a slight vibration. Somehow, the last axle on his rig broke off, went bouncing down Interstate\u00a05 and crushed the little VW with the young woman inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED \u2014\u00a0Two California Highway Patrol\u00a0officers in an $80,000 helicopter landed in a field near Highway 138 and I-5 to help an elderly couple\u00a0stalled\u00a0in the heat. With one officer still at the helm, he felt his chopper lurch to the right. The big blades plowed up the\u00a0field\u00a0and the bubble was smashed. The officers escaped with minor injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ONE BIZAREE THEFT \u2014\u00a0Someone broke into Rich Sheyda\u2019s truck and, of all things, swiped just a 4-ounce bottle of white cyanide powder, clearly marked with a skull-&-crossbones. The poison was used to strip gold from circuit boards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JULY 3,\u00a01986\u00a0<\/p>\n
TOO DARN BUGGY \u2014\u00a0The beetles were in the SCV. Not the English rock group. Placerita Park director Frank\u00a0Hovore\u00a0returned from Costa Rica with a collection of male elephant beetles. The giant bugs were about the size of a man\u2019s fist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LOCAL HUBBA-HUBBAS \u2014\u00a0Tracy Blalock, Naomi Weinstein and\u00a0D\u2019Nell\u00a0Haerle would make the national airwaves\u00a0just about every\u00a0Sunday. The three SCV girls were picked for the Los Angeles Raiders pom\u00a0pon\u00a0squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
FILLED WITH, AHEM, \u2018ZEAL?\u2019 \u2014\u00a0On this date, New Zealand prime minister David Lange rode the Colossus roller coaster at Magic Mountain.\u00a0Reportedly, he\u00a0did not, ahem, \u201cralph,\u201d afterwards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022\u00a0<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t this something? This is the only time \u2014\u00a0ever\u00a0\u2014 on our trail rides where we get to wish each other\u00a0and this wonderful nation of ours a rousing, \u201cHappy 250th Birthday!\u201d See you back here at The Mighty Signal hitching post next weekend with another exciting Time Ranger adventure.\u00a0Until\u00a0then?\u00a0\u00a1Vayan con Dios, amigos\u00a0y\u00a0Feliz cumplea\u00f1os, Am\u00e9rica!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n